diemut

WIGNER’S FRIENDS

/ QUANTUM ART

Wigner’s Friends

2014/15

Quantum Art – A Universal Show of All Art Ever / Collapsed Color Field Images :

Earthbound state: Digital screen 8×8 m with infinitely changing Malevich’s Black Square color copy combinations – View #3

Multi media

Samantha Cristoforetti with one of the 2 telescopes to generate quantum correlations for the purpose of art in outer space and earth.

In Wigner’s friends, a universal show of all art ever is generated in outer space by using the outer space environment and phenomena described by the theory of quantum mechanics.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the first female Italian astronaut, carried one of 2 miniature telescopes on Expedition 42/43 on Nov. 23rd 2014 into outer space, that are launched at different times for this purpose.

The show of all pictures in outer space has no limitations in time and space. Rather than defined by single and individual features of appearance, content and material, the pictures are described and defined by the way they are formatted. The project could be seen as a quantum variation on Jorge Louis Borges Library of Babel.

The extra terrestrial occurrences have a connection in a reference show in on earth presenting artworks that collapsed into a single state. It will allow the observers to participate in the generation of quantum correlations as Wigner’s friends.

Futura Launch , 2014

Installation view #1

Wigner’s Friends, Ron Feldman Gallery 2015, NYC

Video on media player and interactive media installation: amplifier, laptop with software program, monitor, and telescope. Runtime: 1:09 minutes

MALEVICH slideshow presented on large scale monitor

Wigner’s friends

2014 / 2015

Quantum Art – A Universal Show of All Art Ever

Wigner’s Friends / Earthbound state:

Digital screen with changing infinite Black Square color copy combination #2

“Collapsed “color fields for Malevich’s Black Square /color generation ever changing presented on screen / interactive media installation: amplifier, laptop with software program, monitor, and telescope.

Close up view on the miniature telescope, which is connected by ‘spooky action at a distance’ with the twin telescope in space.

Quantum Art – A Universal Show of All Art Ever
Each telescope carries a CCD chip that is hit by radiation from distant stars and galaxies and thermal background radiation (light leftover from the big bang). According to some of the interpretations of quantum mechanics, this radiation simultaneously generates all possible patterns on the pixels of each chip, creating a universal show consisting of all possible works of art at once.
The chip encapsulated in the telescope has 5,000,000 pixels, allowing the creation of 2^40000000 different configurations. This is more than the number of particles in the observable universe and larger than all the possible artworks that have been created to date.
The telescope in the show on earth participates in a referential way in the quantum mechanical process of the film in the miniature telescope. Before the second telescope in a space flightworthy version is launched into space, it observes the heavens from earth in an art show. Its CCD array generates a string of bits induced by absorbing photons from the cosmos. Every time a photon is absorbed, a small amount of quantum correlation is induced between the telescope on earth and the telescope in space. By the mere act of observation the audience on earth will be able to participate in the generation of quantum correlations as Wigner’s friends.
The signal from the earthbound telescope has been amplified and converted to a randomly generated color field square in the size of Malevich’s Black Square that can be sent to the visitors by mail.

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Wigner’s Friends #18….. AD INFINITUM

The project refers to the different interpretations in quantum mechanics and their philosophical implications.
In contemporary life we use mathematical predictions of quantum theory every day in many technologies. On the other hand we take our reality for granted even though these very same mathematical predictions contradict our perception in many fundamental principles such as location, time, information transfer, space and causality. It imposes profound philosophical questions based on mathematical equations. Our concept of reality seems to be related in many ways as Plato introduced it in his allegory of the cave, which relates reality to specific settings rather than necessarily being autonomous and independently existent from us. The observer is seen as being interwoven in the system structure rather than looking at a scene on a stage. In this allegory about human perception, Plato claims that knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion. Quantum physics builds a concept of reality on top of it that takes Plato’s evidence of the life outside the cave to the illusionary state of the people inside the cave.

The project combines art with one of the most unusual, and in many ways very strange and counterintuitive fields in science. The show of all pictures in outer space has no limitations in time and space. Rather than defined by single and individual features of appearance, content and material, the pictures are described and defined by the way they are formatted. The project could be seen as a quantum variation on Jorge Louis Borges Library of Babel.

The project is a collaboration with NASA/ESA, MIT and others and has started with the launch into space on a Soyuz 41 rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The extra terrestrial occurrences will have a connection in a reference show in an art site on earth and will allow the observers to participate in the generation of quantum correlations as Wigner’s friends.

Wigner’s friends

2014 / 2015

Quantum Art – A Universal Show of All Art Ever

Earthbound state: Digital screen with infinite changing Malevich’s Black Square color copy combinations – View #3

Wigner’s Friends / Earthbound state: Digital screen with changing infinite Black Square color copy combination #2

“Wigner’s Friend’s” is a collaboration of the artist with Seth Lloyd, MIT; John Mather, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Samantha Cristoforetti, Jules Grandsire, ESA- EAC European Astronaut Centre; Jon Petrucelli, University at Albany.